musings and inspirations in art, fashion, craft, decor, creative business and creative living by artist Traci Bautista
be inspired...live a beautiful life...

For several years, I've drawn or painted one of my signature girlie glam faces on January 1st to kick off the year. Ususally it includes a little paint on the page or a digital painting with hand lettered words, mantras or phrases of things/ideas I want to bring into my NEW YEAR.

Thank you for your continued support and sharing in my creative journey throughout the years. May your day be filled with LOVE, happiness, joy, cheer, great food and wonderful memories with family and friends!

Happy holidays...xoxo~Traci

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my holiday gift to you...

SAVE 20% ALL ORDERS on Christmas Day! use coupon code:CHRISTMAS20 during checkout.

{offer expires 12.25.14 at 11:59pm PT}

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p.s. join me for art.journal.PLAY LIVE 2015! early bird discount until 12/31/14. find out details

Hi my lovely creative peeps! It's been awhile since my last post. I needed a break, I've been under the weather and am finally starting to feel better.

NEW directions---->After the past year and a half of brainstorming, creating, editing, writing and promoting Printmaking Unleashed. I just needed a break...a break from teaching, a break from creating, a break from writing. I was feeling uninspired...which really never happens to me. But I just felt the need to be quiet, to dig deep inside and just be. LIVE in the moment.

I designed a new DIY planner/calendar, testing out new digital product designs.

working on my surface pattern design portfolio and NEW stencil designs

getting outdoors to enjoy the beautiful bay area weather

I've been doing a lot of soul searching, planning, brainstorming and decision making on where to take my business next.

new hand-dyed handmade papers made from recycled papers...

took a little personal time and self-care...I spent some time visiting my family in Hawaii.

taught mixed media workshops at Art Unraveled...

Making time to learn NEW techniques...I signed up for my very first ceramics/pottery class. I'm learning to throw on the wheel and hand build pots...it's such a fun and relaxing process. It's a lot harder than it looks, but I'm totally loving it! I grew up surrounded by ceramics because my grandma was always painting and making interesting pieces. Every time we visited, I'd sit and watch her paint ceramics in her garage studio. I don't know why I've never taking a class before..it's inspired me to push my art in NEW directions.

spending time with my LOVES...

savoring our beautiful backyard sunsets..taking time to BREATHE...

hope you are taking time for yourself..and exploring NEW directions...

Hello creative lovelies! Summer is officially here!! Just want to give you a quick update, look what arrived this weekend...Printmaking Unleashed is here! If you pre-ordered a limited edition signed copy + stencil kit from my online shoppe, they start shipping today.

In the coming weeks I will be sharing more peeks inside the book and writing process PLUS launching my new Printmaking Unleashed LIVE e-course series. A new 3-part e-course and live stream workshops go LIVE in August. Be the first to know...join the list!

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In other news..little Indie turned TWO this weekend! This little girl is a sweet, loving and silly pup. She loves her daily walks, chasing birds and squirrels and our weekend trips to the beach. She's a bundle of joy and LOVE! Happy birthday little girl!

My beautiful sister celebrated her big 4-0 this weekend too. We grew up doing everything together. My mom used to dress us in the same clothes even though we aren't twins...lol. She's my best friend, confidant and is always there for me through thick and thin. I can always depend on her for advice, encouragement and support. Happy birthday Dude..I love you!!

Over the Memorial Day weekend we spent an afternoon exploring San Francisco Bay Trail. In the past I've shared our local trail explorations, day road trips and weekend getaways. We are always on the lookout for new places to take little Indie hiking. Tyler discovered this gem by the water searching online. We explored the section of the trail on the border of San Mateo and Foster City in the Bay Area, CA.

It was a very warm but breezy day, there is a large off leash dirt{no grass} dog park which has a walking trail around the outer edge. Throughout the trail you'll find a lot of dry sea vegetation..sea grass, wild sea peas, california wild flowers and interesting looking weeds.

I really love finding the beauty in the weeds and while walking the trail a large monarch butterfly fluttered through the dry grass and I was able to capture it's beautiful dance on video.

There are large metal sculptures and interesting wind mills plus you can see the huge electrical towers and power lines that drape the edge of the ocean. Along the trail there are information boards that talk about the history of the bridges, vegetation and wildlife that surrounds.

This part of the trail is right along the flight path to SFO, so you can watch multiple planes on the approach to the airport.

Recently, I discovered a new free iphone app Magisto which makes creates a beautiful collage montage of the videos and photos. In the freee version, you choose 10 photos and 10 videos, music and a title..then Magisto does it magic and puts together a mash-up of your media. Here's a video of our SF Bay trail exploration set to music by Zee Avi "Bag of Gold"...

here are a few ideas on how to use your explorations to inspire your art...

Surtex and the National Stationery Show are happening in NYC this week, I've seen a bunch of my artist friends post all the colorful inspiration from booths at the shows..super inspiring. I thought it would be fun to share with you what I've been up to designing patterns, with the goal of exhibiting at Surtex in 2015.

Over the past year in between all my other projects, I've been working on building my surface pattern design portfolio and educating myself on the opportunities involved in expanding more of my business into art licensing. I have a few licensed products I've developed including Collage Pauge, my Stampington Graffiti Glam stamps, DVDs, {kol*LaJ] paper & stationery, my books and a NEW StencilGirl collection {coming in July!!}.

Diving into the world of licensing for surface pattern design has been on my goal list since 2006 {I really want to design a line of fabrics} but I always keep putting it off due to all my other teaching, writing and design projects. I started designing collections in 2012 but put them aside to finish writing my last two books. So I've made the commitment to work hard through the rest of 2014 to launch my art licensing business. My patterns are a mixture of handmade paintings and digital artwork. I start with mixed media mark-making and various printmaking techniques then scan them into the computer and create pattern collections using Photoshop.

I thought I'd share a little behind the scenes of all the colorful patterns, handmade printmaking tools and mixed media artwork I've been creating and provide you with creative jumpstarts to encourage you to work in your journal or sketchbook.

Here are some fun tips and ideas for your sketchbook or art journal inspired by my artwork...

work on plain white cardstock, mixed media, deli or found paper. I do this quite a bit when working on pages for my art journal. I love working on separate sheets of various papers then binding them into handmade books.

Hello lovely blog readers! It's been awhile since my last blog post. Life threw me a curve ball. With overwhelming deadlines and too much on my plate, my body pushed back and told me abruptly that it needed self care. I needed to stop. take a break.

I needed to step back and live in the moment.

I've been quiet here on my blog and social media for the past eight weeks to take time to heal, refresh my creative spirit and take care of myself.

I have been working non-stop..teaching, traveling, blogging, marketing, writing, living out of suitcases/hotels for extended periods and constantly going since I started my creative business 13 years ago. So I made the decision to cut my work week back to 4 days and to spend one day each week taking a "creative sabbatical"...a creative PLAY date.

Oh how I would LOVE to take a year sabbatical and shut down the studio to rejuvenate and refresh my business and self, but that's just not in cards now. So my solution is to spend at least one day a week taking a creative field trip, brainstorming new ideas/projects, doing something creative for myself and embarking in NEW directions for my business...to renew and refresh my creative soul. I have been spending my mornings either sketching/drawing/painting or writing/brainstorming...less noise..LESS social media. In a time when our lives are filled with constant messages being pushed to us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. It's become too much to keep track of...a bit overwhelming at times. This short break from social media has been refreshing.

Snapshots of my spring inspiration...everyday during our walks with Indie, I carry my iPhone and take snapshots of the beauty that surrounds. I print some of these photos and create an inspiration board, which has been a springboard for my latest sketching, pattern and journal work.

Things happening in the studio...I finished up the final LIVE stream workshop for art.journal.PLAY. It was a fabulous three months inclulding art journaling PDF workbooks, creative prompts, live studio workshops and videos. It's now available for self guided access. Here's a snapshot of my desk during the final live stream all about book binding and making journals... SPENDING time outdoors...I've been getting out and taking more photos to use as inspiration for my sketching and drawing. I've been experimenting with new printmaking techniques. mark-making and creating handmade tools...and spending hours in the studio just painting for me.

I hope you take some time for self care...shut off the phone, computer and take a walk, write or sketch. do something creative everyday.

It's #workspacewednesday..so I thought I'd inspire you with little snippets from my studio and ideas for storage. I've moved my studio around many times and have lots of photos from both my home studio and art studio workshop space. My studio is always creative chaos, it's messy, with lots of things on the tables, in shelves and open containers. There's colorful inspiration everywhere you look. I love to collect things and show them off to inspire my color palettes and paintings. Here's a look into my studio...and more than 25 ideas for creative storage and displaying items in your studio.

What's on your studio table? {above} one of my studio tables full of printmaking supplies and tools. many of my tools are handmade from found objects and things collected from my travels, the hardware/dollar/thrift store. Look for interesting things around your studio, garage, home that will make a unique mark. Store your handmade stencils & printing plates in open metal containers. I found the metal containers at Daiso, the Japanese $1.50 store. If you haven't been there...it's a must! {below} my encaustic table. Last year I started experimenting with encaustic monotype. Tyler built me an awesome hot plate. Here's a peek into my setup...

On this last day of 2013, I reflect on a year filled with many highs, a few lows and lots of creative adventures. I've created a couple of videos that share snapshots from the year. {if you are following this post on a reader, you'll have to come to the blog or my instagram to view the videos} I am thankful for all that I have been blessed with and look forward to 2014!

Thank you again from the bottom of heart for sharing in my creative journey.

I wish you a happy, healthy, creative and prosperous 2014!! xoxo~Traci

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